lol okay I got schooled today by a friend and now the problem has been solved. What I didnt realize (or consider) was that the oil pump can be rotated independent of the camshaft. Maybe that's what everyone has meant by "check the rotor at TDC" but I thought there was only 2 different possible ways to mount the distributor. Anyway, we lined up the oil pump and then installed the distributor and it fired up immediately.
thank you everyone for the help.